The Associated Students of the University of Oregon sent a letter to University of Oregon administrators starting August 5 asking for a refund of all online course fees collected during the spring and summer terms. The administration denied the request for student reimbursement, but said they will refund online course fees collected in fall 2020.
UO attaches a $25-per-credit fee to online courses to pay for “instructional design, supporting technology, and the infrastructure of the system,” according to the coronavirus information website.
UO spokesperson Saul Hubbard highlighted the difference between online classes and remote classes in an email. “Online courses means courses specifically designed to be delivered online — the fee attached covers the resources and infrastructure costs associated with designing and running an online course.”
Remote courses are classes designed for in-person instruction that transitioned to virtual delivery, and therefore have no fee.
“As we purposefully move these targeted high-enrollment courses online, we will refund the online fee for the fall 2020 term only,” the website read. “This will help ease the transition and minimize the impact for students who need to take a high-enrollment course being offered exclusively online without a remote or face-to-face alternative.”
Unsatisfied with the fall term refund, the ASUO academic senators decided to send a letter demanding a refund for online fees paid in spring and summer terms, as well.
They initially sent the letter to the academic departments. While the departments do not control their course fees, ASUO hoped to create an “open line of communication” before forwarding the letter to university administration, according to ASUO Senator Kyle Geffon, who helped write the letter.
“While under normal university operations, the implementation of these fees are tolerable at best; due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these fees are unacceptable,” the letter read. “The online fee must be refunded for Spring and Summer and paused until UO can return to full in-person instruction.”
Although the online course fee is visible to students at the point of registration, “it would make things much easier on students to not have to worry about figuring out which classes they have to pay an extra fee for, even though they’re all online,” Geffon said. “It just doesn’t make sense why we’re going to charge for some classes and not for the others when they’re essentially the same thing.”
ASUO did not receive the response it was looking for. “The Provost Office remained relatively steadfast in their stance on the online fees,” Geffon said. “So the Senate is considering what next steps to take at the moment.”
Jaedon Gyimah, a UO business student, paid an online course fee for a finance class. He believed the fee should be implemented on a case-by-case basis, depending on the class’ infrastructure, rather than if it’s an online or remote course.
“Everything was on Canvas,” he said. “If it’s all on Canvas, I don’t really think there’s any point of charging an extra fee. Unless there’s a different type of software that we’re using, then I don’t think there should be a fee.”
